Understanding the Screenwriters' Strike

[ThisElfRocksHard]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzRHl...m/reader/view/

Word of warning: this might be biased. I am curious to know how others feel about this.

[Dead_And_Gone]

You'd THINK that "Writer's" would have seen their own movies that had
strikes in them, to know how to run them properly.

Actually, they just want just compensation for the hard work that they do.
Jay Leno doesn't write his monologue, nor the questions that he asks
his guests. They are done by WRITER'S.

While Jay makes millions performing the writer's work, the compensation
on the writer's end is ludicrous.

DVD makers rake in tons of money from copied shows, sitcoms, etc.
The writer's that made them what they are, but in the background,
just want compensation for their work.

Same as ANY union wants just compensation for their constituents work.

I see nothing wrong with this, but worry for Leno and the other talk show
hosts that now have noone writing for them new material.

[Rand{CLR}]

Well, in theory, Leno was a stand up comedian, who presumably wrote his own "material." I personally think he's about as funny as a, um, uh, something really unfunny...yeah. Anyway, he should be able to at least wing it if/when they decide to bring back some of the late night shows before the strike ends.

Conan and Letterman would both do much better than Leno with no writing staff. However, since Conan came up as a writer, I don't think he would start up the show early. Letterman might.

-Rand

[paceman]

Looking at it from the perspective someone that "writes" things also, programs.

I don't get paid every time my program runs, or is downloaded, or sold. I was paid to write the program, period. I see no difference. They are paid a wage to create something. They created it, they got paid for it.

[jaspurr]

They created it, they got paid for it.

Well said. I hope the guys at Ford don't get the same idea.

[Dead_And_Gone]

THen again... MOST actors get residuals from all sales, any rebroadcast,
or any advertisement using their name/face/or movie.

And yes, for every 1,000 actors trying to make it BIG, one will make it
middlin, and 1 will make it big. I'm not even sure the ratio shouldn't be
bigger. Most of them are category "Starving" actors for a reason.

The whole digital realm thing is a nasty worm, and a hotbead for
litigation. We all want free use of the internet, but someone had to pay
for it, and keep paying for it to make it a basically cheap or free comodity.

But then again, someone would try to charge you for air if they could
get away with it.. lol

A writer writes a book. He gets the upfront money, then the residuals on
any sales over xxyy. I think that is where they are trying to willow in.

I DO see your point though. I sell you a toilet, I'm not going to expect
a residual everytime you use it afterwards...

Different venue's, different rules and different remunerations are part
and parcel of our capitalistic system. If they didn't like the setup, why
did they get into or stay IN that system. It isn't a sweat shop.

[mapes]

The whole digital realm thing is a nasty worm, and a hotbead for
litigation. We all want free use of the internet, but someone had to pay
for it, and keep paying for it to make it a basically cheap or free comodity.

Not to be a stickler but, we do pay for the internet. We paid in taxes for the RnD which went to DARPA..which created it, and we pay for the use of it to our ISP.

[Apache Warrior]

Well, in theory, Leno was a stand up comedian, who presumably wrote his own "material." I personally think he's about as funny as a, um, uh, something really unfunny...yeah. Anyway, he should be able to at least wing it if/when they decide to bring back some of the late night shows before the strike ends.

Conan and Letterman would both do much better than Leno with no writing staff. However, since Conan came up as a writer, I don't think he would start up the show early. Letterman might.

-Rand

Actually, I think they are all members of the Writer's Guild and this means if they honor the strike they can not, write and use, their own material.
Apache

[Rand{CLR}]

The whole digital realm thing is a nasty worm, and a hotbead for
litigation. We all want free use of the internet, but someone had to pay
for it, and keep paying for it to make it a basically cheap or free comodity.

Not to be a stickler but, we do pay for the internet. We paid in taxes for the RnD which went to DARPA..which created it, and we pay for the use of it to our ISP.

Actually, this isn't the case. ARPAnet was created long before I started paying taxes. And our non-US friends using the internet aren't paying anything that contributes to US efforts in internet development or propogation.

I am, however, paying those SOBs at Comcast almost 50 bucks a month for internet that is 1/20th as fast and 6 times more expensive than Japan, Sweden, Norway, and other areas.

-Rand

[ThisElfRocksHard]

I can see the writers' point, but what worries me is the people that work on these shows and movies who aren't getting paid right now. Show business employs a LOT of people, and not just actors and writers, whose house payments and car payments rely on the business continuing.

[[TT]BrundleFly]

I sell you a toilet, I'm not going to expect a residual everytime you use it afterwards...

Is that a residual or residue? Ugh...

Anyway, I just pee on my neighbor's grass...

[alpha]

I am, however, paying those SOBs at Comcast almost 50 bucks a month for internet that is 1/20th as fast and 6 times more expensive than Japan, Sweden, Norway, and other areas.

Call them up and threaten to switch to DSL, I did that and they are charging me $10 a month less now

[mapes]

The whole digital realm thing is a nasty worm, and a hotbead for
litigation. We all want free use of the internet, but someone had to pay
for it, and keep paying for it to make it a basically cheap or free comodity.

Not to be a stickler but, we do pay for the internet. We paid in taxes for the RnD which went to DARPA..which created it, and we pay for the use of it to our ISP.

Actually, this isn't the case. ARPAnet was created long before I started paying taxes. And our non-US friends using the internet aren't paying anything that contributes to US efforts in internet development or propogation.

I am, however, paying those SOBs at Comcast almost 50 bucks a month for internet that is 1/20th as fast and 6 times more expensive than Japan, Sweden, Norway, and other areas.

-Rand

Ummm maybe you didn't pay for the RnD for TCP/IP development but, Americans did via taxes.

As for other countries not paying they're share.....What are you talking about? At this point Internet development is not handled at the National level any more. It's handled at the university and multinational level or by anyone who can get on an IETF steering commiitee. For a long time the only thing the US controls on the Internet anymore is the core DNS servers.

[Rand{CLR}]

The whole digital realm thing is a nasty worm, and a hotbead for
litigation. We all want free use of the internet, but someone had to pay
for it, and keep paying for it to make it a basically cheap or free comodity.

Not to be a stickler but, we do pay for the internet. We paid in taxes for the RnD which went to DARPA..which created it, and we pay for the use of it to our ISP.

Actually, this isn't the case. ARPAnet was created long before I started paying taxes. And our non-US friends using the internet aren't paying anything that contributes to US efforts in internet development or propogation.

I am, however, paying those SOBs at Comcast almost 50 bucks a month for internet that is 1/20th as fast and 6 times more expensive than Japan, Sweden, Norway, and other areas.

-Rand

Ummm maybe you didn't pay for the RnD for TCP/IP development but, Americans did via taxes.

As for other countries not paying they're share.....What are you talking about? At this point Internet development is not handled at the National level any more. It's handled at the university and multinational level or by anyone who can get on an IETF steering commiitee. For a long time the only thing the US controls on the Internet anymore is the core DNS servers.

Regarding taxes, you could say the same thing about the Monitor, or U.S. funded Wright Brothers-model military aircraft. I didn't pay for those either, but Americans in their day paid taxes that went toward them. So what? I wouldn't really call that a "we paid for it" sort of deal because you, or I, aren't in that collective "we" in this sort of case.

On the rest, read more closely. I said other countries aren't paying anything that contributes to US efforts in internet development. Emphasis on US of A. As in an answer to your point about taxes for RnD and DARPA funding. Looking closer to modern times, most of the universities working on Internet 2.0 were/are publicly funded U.S. institutions.

My taxes are paying in part for some of that since University of Maryland is one of those universities, and I'm sure there are federal grants. But Sirex or Grisu, to pull two names from a hat, didn't pay for the early stages of that either. I don't know how far all that has progressed now, so they may be paying similar taxes in Scotland and Germany for their own internet development by now.

In any case, a percentage of a cent or two from your taxes going toward internet development and research (this is probably literally the case for the amount of money that every American is putting forward that is dedicated to this stuff) is quite different from direct taxes of your internet usage and purchases.

-Rand

As an aside, we should really be putting more money back into R&D in general, and internet in particular. The ancestral "we" paid for the radio, the automobile, the electric light, the television, the computer, etc. etc. Yet there aren't any of those we do particularly better than other nations and companies now. Same thing goes for the internet backbone protocols and equipment.

[Dead_And_Gone]

It comes down to what we can and cannot offer to the public internet wise.
We would have fiber to the curve in many places right now, and
lightning fast all Everything service included, but for the FCC.

They mandated that ANY new services would have to be offered to
competitors at 45% of cost. (Enfia tariff) So for basically 5 years, the
big boys had to sit on their hands. Put in a fiber to the customer's
RT across the street, JoBlo Resale internet services decides he wants to
corner the market, and buys it all up, and the company who put it in,
the Telco, now has no customers but the resaler, and losing money on
top of that.

Say you have a new housing complex going in. HEY, we can put a fiber
Remote Terminal in, and service the entire community with High speed
fiber practically to their doorstep. Oh Wait, YardDog Resaler just asked
for ALL the bandwidth. So they get the revenue, and the Telco would
take a 55% loss. This was with the old tariff in place.

These restrictions just got lifted this year, and U-verse and other
offerings are now being pushed hard to get super fast service to
customers. Thus, US is a little behind the other developed countries
in offering super high speed cheap internet service.

Why are some of the other countries so much cheaper or faster?
1. In highly concentrated population centers like Japan, you can
get fiber to a building or block, and service Hundreds of people
with one big pipe. Win Win, Cheap Cheap, Fast Fast.
2. They aren't under the oppressive restrictions that the FCC,
lobbyists, and politics put on the providers here in the USA.
3. Some of the other nations have "National" phone service. It is
Partially or wholly owned by the country itself. It thus is either
subsidized, or "Helped" along in major projects and accesses.
US companies have to beg, borrow, or whatever to get the
appropriate permits, rights, and approvals to do the same thing.
4. MONEY. It takes Lots of MONEY to lay down high speed fiber,
especially the newer gighertz fibers. Now it wouldn't make sense
to throw away miles of copper cable that has and still does service
a given area, especially when 90% of the customers there use just
local phone service. Fiber is a HUGE investment.
5. Newer technology, new fiber RT huts, all going in day after day to
people's neighborhoods. Only so many people can work on that at
one time. Put too much of your money into new equipment/facilities,
on the "Hope" that you will get a payback for it, and you could go
out of business. Many do when they have spent so much and the
returns don't keep up with the loan payments for the original purchases.

So you see, it isn't just a simple answer. Economics, profit margins,
stockholders, regulations, it all ties in together.